Hi all. I am an NY brewer looking at nanobrwery startup costs. I was wondering of anyone out there in beer land has any expertise beyond the brew floor? I'm looking for legal costs and hurdles, labeling costs/hurdles, etc.

When I was seriously considering going that route, my buisness partner and I figured we would need a minimum of around 50K to get up and running, not including the cost of permits ect. This was a bare-bones set up mind you. We never went through with it.

Point of clarification, I ask instead of searching mostly to seek anecdotes from those currently seeking out nano brewing and those already in the marketplace. Nano brewing in NY has been changing from quarter to quarter and as municipalities become more and more familiar with it, my curiosity is in how this moving target is changing.

I am an aspiring nanobrewer out in CA and have done a ton of research on the subject. It seem like the biggest hurdle is dealing with your local gov't and all the various fees and zoning issues. It seems that unless the nanobrewery is located in an area that has cheap rent and relatively lax local government regulation it is very, very hard to make it. Have you read this...? THE SMALL BREWING SYSTEMS PAGEPlease read this if you are considering a system smaller than 7 barrels
I agree that a minimum of 50K is needed depending on your area. In my part of CA I figured that it would cost me a minimum of 2k a month for licensing, rent, insurance, etc...You have to sell a lot of beer to make it worth it and even then you will be paying yourself minimum wage...if at all!